Agorism is the practice of counter-economics and the ideas associated with that practice. Agorist ideas assert that Libertarian philosophy occurs in practice, in the real world, as Counter-Economics. It was first proposed by libertarian philosopher Samuel Edward Konkin III in 1975.[1]

Although very similar to anarcho-capitalism, agorism is explicitly opposed to political elections and parliamentary strategies. Some agorists oppose intellectual property; some allow for certain forms of intellectual property.

Many anarcho-capitalists and voluntaryists are practicing agorists. There is no definitive policy statement from any authoritative leader of agorism because agorism is decentralized and non-hierarchical by definition.

Agorism (based on the principle of counter-economics) promotes withdrawing from the state and using counter-economic activities to minimize what a person contributes to the state in the form of taxes, license fees, and so forth.

Criticisms

Agorists' opposition to voting differs from the views of Murray Rothbard, who defended the act of voting.[4] Rothbard openly denounced Konkin's agorism:[5]

“Konkin’s entire theory speaks only to the interests and concerns of the marginal classes who are self-employed. The great bulk of the people are full-time wage workers; they are people with steady jobs. Konkinism has nothing whatsoever to say to these people. To adopt Konkin’s strategy, then, would on this ground alone, serve up a dead end for the libertarian movement. We cannot win if there is no possibility of speaking to the concerns of the great bulk of wage earners in this and other countries.”